[News] Palestinians to Sort 10.5 Tons of 8-Y-O Israeli-Rejected Mail

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestinians-to-Sort-10.5-Tons-of-8-Y-O-Israeli-Rejected-Mail-20180820-0019.html 



  Palestinians to Sort 10.5 Tons of 8-Y-O Israeli-Rejected Mail

August 20, 2018
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Palestinian postal workers in the Occupied West Bank are tasked to sort 
through eight years of mail after Israel withheld delivery of postal 
shipments to Palestinian territories since 2010.

“We received tons of Palestinian mail because of the intolerance of the 
occupation authorities who refused to bring it through Jordan and as it 
is stamped for the Palestinian postal destination,” Hussein Sawafta, the 
director general of the Palestinian post service, told reporters Sunday.

The backlog was created following Israeli's rejection of the mail which 
reportedly violates a 2008 send-and-receive agreement with Palestinians, 
according to Palestinian postage official Ramadan Ghazawi.

“It was blocked because each time they (Israel) used to give us a reason 
and an excuse. Once they said the terminal, the building that the post 
was supposed to arrive to is not ready and once (they said) to wait, 
they're expecting a larger checking machine (security scanner),” Ghazawi 
explained.

The Palestinian ministry of telecommunications posted photos of the mail 
on its Facebook page. The tons of undelivered mail include letters, 
boxes and a wheelchair.

“After eight years it didn't come categorized as it is supposed to be, 
with lists and categorized. We got it all mixed.”

Cogat, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian 
affairs in the West Bank, said there is no current agreement for this 
category of mail adding that the one-time release of the tons of mail 
was a “gesture.”

“About a year ago, an in-principle agreement was signed between Israel 
and the Palestinian Authority. The memorandum of understanding has not 
yet resulted in a direct transfer, and the subject is in the advanced 
stages of being worked through. There is, therefore,** no direct mail 
transfer at this time,” the COGAT statement said.

“However, as a gesture, and in a step that went beyond the letter of the 
law, COGAT, with the assistance of the Ministry of Communications and 
the Customs Authority, allowed a one-time transfer of approximately 
ten-and-a-half tons of mail that had been held in Jordan.”

Letters or packages addressed to the West Bank and Gaza Strip are 
subject to Israeli security inspection.

-- 
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